Theoretical Study of Pressure Fluctuations Downstream of a Diffuser Pump Impeller—Part 2: Effects of Volute, Flow Rate and Radial Gap

1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 653-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Qin ◽  
H. Tsukamoto

The fundamental analysis in the first report was extended to calculate the unsteady flow induced by the interaction between impeller blades and diffuser vanes/volute casing in a diffuser pump. The unsteady flow in the diffuser vane passage, as well as the volute casing, is assumed to be induced by the five kinds of singularities—the bound vortices distributed on the impeller blades, diffuser vanes and volute casing wall, the sources at volute outlet, and the free vortices shed from the trailing edge of diffuser vanes. Calculated unsteady pressures agree with the corresponding experimental data. And the calculated results showed the effects of the flow rate, volute casing and the radial gaps between impeller blade trailing edge and diffuser vane leading edge on the magnitude of unsteady pressure downstream of impeller.

2007 ◽  
Vol 2007 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Feng ◽  
Friedrich-Karl Benra ◽  
Hans Josef Dohmen

Numerical simulations on impeller-diffuser interactions in radial diffuser pumps are conducted to investigate the unsteady flow, and more attention is paid to pressure fluctuations on the blade and vane surfaces. Calculations are performed at different operating points, different blade number configurations, and different radial gaps between the impeller and diffuser to examine their effects on the unsteady flow. Computational results show that a jet-wake flow structure is observed at the impeller outlet. The biggest pressure fluctuation on the blade is found to occur at the impeller trailing edge, on the pressure side near the impeller trailing edge, and at the diffuser vane leading edge, independent of the flow rate, radial gap, and blade number configuration. All of the flow rate, blade number configuration, and radial gap influence significantly the pressure fluctuation and associated unsteady effects in the diffuser pumps.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 647-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Qin ◽  
H. Tsukamoto

A theoretical method was developed to calculate the unsteady flow caused by the interaction between impeller and diffuser vanes in a diffuser pump by using the singularity method. The unsteady flow in the diffuser vane is assumed to be induced by three kinds of unsteady vortices: bound vortices distributed on the impeller blades and diffuser vanes, and free vortices shed from the trailing edge of diffuser vanes. In order to make clear the contribution of each harmonic component of unsteady vortices to unsteady pressure, all the unsteady vortices are expressed in the form of Fourier series. The calculated unsteady pressures downstream of impeller agree well with the corresponding measured ones. Moreover, it was shown that impulsive pressure plays a predominant role for unsteady pressures.


Author(s):  
N. Arndt ◽  
A. J. Acosta ◽  
C. E. Brennen ◽  
T. K. Caughey

This paper describes an experimental investigation of rotor–stator interaction in a centrifugal pump with several vaned diffusers. Steady and unsteady diffuser vane pressure measurements were made for a two–dimensional test impeller. Unsteady impeller blade pressure measurements were made for a second two–dimensional impeller with blade number and blade geometry identical to the two–dimensional impeller used for the diffuser vane pressure measurements. The experiments were conducted for different flow coefficients and different radial gaps between the impeller blade trailing edge and the diffuser vane leading edge (5% and 8% of the impeller discharge radius). The largest pressure fluctuations on the diffuser vanes and the impeller blades were found to be of the same order of magnitude as the total pressure rise across the pump. The largest pressure fluctuations on the diffuser vanes were observed to occur on the suction side of the vane near the vane leading edge, whereas on the impeller blades the largest fluctuations were observed to occur at the blade trailing edge. However, the dependence of the fluctuations on the flow coefficient was found to be different for the diffuser vanes and the impeller blades; on the vane suction side, the fluctuations were largest for the maximum flow coefficient and decreased with decreasing flow coefficient, whereas at the blade trailing edge, the fluctuations were smallest for the maximum flow coefficient and increased with decreasing flow coefficient. Increasing the number of the diffuser vanes resulted in a significant decrease of the impeller blade pressure fluctuations. The resulting lift on the diffuser vanes was computed from the vane pressure measurements; the magnitude of the fluctuating lift was found to be larger than the steady lift.


1990 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Arndt ◽  
A. J. Acosta ◽  
C. E. Brennen ◽  
T. K. Caughey

This paper describes an experimental investigation of rotor-stator interaction in a centrifugal pump with several vaned diffusers. Steady and unsteady diffuser vane pressure measurements were made for a two-dimensional test impeller. Unsteady impeller blade pressure measurements were made for a second two-dimensional impeller with blade number and blade geometry identical to the two-dimensional impeller used for the diffuser vane pressure measurements. The experiments were conducted for different flow coefficients and different radial gaps between the impeller blade trailing edge and the diffuser vane leading edge (5 and 8 percent of the impeller discharge radius). The largest pressure fluctuations on the diffuser vanes and the impeller blades were found to be of the same order of magnitude as the total pressure rise across the pump. The largest pressure fluctuations on the diffuser vanes were observed to occur on the suction side of the vane near the vane leading edge, whereas on the impeller blades the largest fluctuations were observed to occur at the blade trailing edge. However, the dependence of the fluctuations on the flow coefficient was found to be different for the diffuser vanes and the impeller blades; on the vane suction side, the fluctuations were largest for the maximum flow coefficient and decreased with decreasing flow coefficient, whereas at the blade trailing edge, the fluctuations were smallest for the maximum flow coefficient and increased with decreasing flow coefficient. Increasing the number of the diffuser vanes resulted in a significant decrease of the impeller blade pressure fluctuations. The resulting lift on the diffuser vanes was computed from the vane pressure measurements; the magnitude of the fluctuating lift was found to be larger than the steady lift.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 650
Author(s):  
Guangtai Shi ◽  
Dandan Yan ◽  
Xiaobing Liu ◽  
Yexiang Xiao ◽  
Zekui Shu

The gas volume fraction (GVF) often changes from time to time in a multiphase pump, causing the power capability of the pump to be increasingly affected. In the purpose of revealing the pressure load characteristics of the multiphase pump impeller blade with the gas-liquid two-phase case, firstly, a numerical simulation which uses the SST k-ω turbulence model is verified with an experiment. Then, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software is employed to investigate the variation characteristics of static pressure and pressure load of the multiphase pump impeller blade under the diverse inlet gas volume fractions (IGVFs) and flow rates. The results show that the effect of IGVF on the head and hydraulic efficiency at a small flow rate is obviously less than that at design and large flow rates. The static pressure on the blade pressure side (PS) is scarcely affected by the IGVF. However, the IGVF has an evident effect on the static pressure on the impeller blade suction side (SS). Moreover, the pump power capability is descended by degrees as the IGVF increases, and it is also descended with the increase of the flow rate at the impeller inlet. Simultaneously, under the same IGVF, with the increase of the flow rate, the peak value of the pressure load begins to gradually move toward the outlet and its value from hub to shroud is increased. The research results have important theoretical significance for improving the power capability of the multiphase pump impeller.


Author(s):  
Eduardo Blanco ◽  
Rau´l Barrio ◽  
Jorge Parrondo ◽  
Jose´ Gonza´lez ◽  
Joaqui´n Ferna´ndez

A study is presented on the numerical computation of the unsteady flow through a single suction and single volute centrifugal pump equipped with three impellers of different outlet diameter. Computations were performed by means of the Fluent code, solving the 3D URANS equations. The study was focused on the effect of varying the impeller-volute radial gap on the flow perturbations associated to the fluid-dynamic blade-tongue interaction. In order to contrast the numerical predictions, an experimental series of tests was conducted for the pump with the bigger impeller, to obtain pressure fluctuation data along the volute front wall. Finally, the results from the numerical simulations were used to compute the radial forces at the blade passing frequency, as a function of flow-rate and blade-tongue radial gap.


Author(s):  
Taiki Takamine ◽  
Satoshi Watanabe

Abstract Because of the high energy density of multi-stage centrifugal pump, it is really important to ensure the reliability of the pumps thus the stability of rotor system in the wide flow rate range. Rotating stall is a well-known unsteady flow phenomenon in which one or several stall cell structures propagate circumferentially in impeller and/or diffuser. Rotating stall alters the peripheral pressure distribution of rotors, and therefore it is often regarded as one of the primary trigger of unstable fluid force acting on the rotor system. One possible factor which could affect the rotating stall is a geometrical relationship between the rotor and the stator. In the present study, unsteady RANS simulations of internal flow in a centrifugal pump are carried out. The pump is the partial model of the final stage of the three-stage centrifugal pump used in our previous study. In order to investigate the effect of the gap between impeller trailing edge and diffuser leading edge on the unsteady flow of the pump, three cases of impeller-diffuser gap is simulated; one is the smaller gap case with original impeller. The other cases are two larger gap cases with only cutting the impeller blades and with cutting the both impeller blades and impeller shroud walls. For all gap cases, the computations are conducted for the nominal flow rate and the low flor rate with 10% of the nominal flow rate. As a result, the rotating stall is observed only in the larger gap case with the cut shroud walls, indicating that the key phenomenon for the stable formation of the stall cell is not only the weakened rotor-stator interaction, but also the other phenomenon attributed to the enlarged gap between the impeller shroud walls and the diffuser walls. In the shroud cut case, a part of the main flow blocked by the stalled region and the secondary flow on the diffuser walls tend to flow into the side gaps more easily than other cases. They might be the important phenomenon associated with the diffuser rotating stall in the enlarged wall gap condition.


1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 627-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Kaupert ◽  
Thomas Staubli

Hysteresis in a pump characteristic results from instability phenomena involving complex three dimensional flow with recirculation. The unsteady flow field on the top and bottom branches of a hysteresis loop in a high specific speed (ωs = 1.7) centrifugal pump characteristic was experimentally evaluated. A hypothesis for recirculation zones and prerotation as power dissipaters is proposed for explaining the discrepancy in the pressure and shaft power hysteresis. The experimental investigation was performed in both the rotating and stationary frame. In the rotating frame 25 miniature pressure transducers mounted in an impeller blade passage were sampled with a telemetry system. In the stationary frame a fast response probe was implemented. The changing impeller flow field manifested itself between the two branches of the hysteresis with increasing stochastic pressure fluctuations. Using this information the position, size, and strength of the impeller recirculation was quantitatively determined. Theoretically the rate of change of useful hydraulic power in the hysteresis regime during transient pump operation was found to be a function of throttling rate. Quasi-steady behavior existed for slow throttling, |dφ/dt| < 0.005 s−1. A second-order nonlinear dependence on the throttle rate was determined for the change of useful flow power during the commencement/cessation of the impeller recirculation.


Author(s):  
Dongjae Kong ◽  
Seung Jin Song

Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulation has been conducted to investigate how flow coefficient affects unsteady impeller loading. Simulations have been carried out at three flow coefficients — near stall, design, and near choke conditions — for a radial gap of 1.04. For computational efficiency, the unsteady simulation has been conducted for two impeller and diffuser passages via Fourier Transformation method. Both steady and unsteady simulations have been validated against experimental data. The unsteady loading (the difference between the maximum and minimum loadings) is the largest at the near stall condition; second largest at the near choke condition; and smallest at the design condition. Flow coefficient effects on the unsteady impeller loading are mostly due to the variations in pressure fluctuations on the pressure side of the impeller blade. Relative to the design condition, the near stall condition shows lower minimum loading and the near choke condition shows higher maximum loading. Thus, both off design conditions result in higher unsteady loading than the design condition. Such differences stem from the variations in the pitch-wise static pressure at the diffuser vane inlet caused by the flow incidence onto the diffuser vanes.


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